Restrictive Covenants: Lasting Remnants of Segregation in Spokane

Does your neighborhood have rules that prevent people of color from buying or renting a home on your block? Most of us would say “no” without hesitation. But are you sure?

In my most recent blog post, I featured a fascinating publication from 1968 called Race and Violence in Washington State: A Commissioned Report. The report featured some interesting maps that showed how the Black population was concentrated in certain areas of Spokane. You can see that there are two parts of town where the vast majority of Spokane’s Black population lived, downtown and the East Central Neighborhood. It may seem as if these were the two neighborhoods that Black people choose to settle in, but to some extent that choice was already made for them.

Looking at the map, you may notice that within city limits there were only two population “dots” south of what appears to be 10th Avenue. That means that in 1960 only around twenty Blacks lived on the South Hill. Furthermore there were no Blacks living south of about 20th Avenue. This was not because Black people were not interested in living on the South Hill but rather because neighborhoods on the Hill actually prevented Blacks from buying or renting homes in their neighborhoods.

When some South Hill neighborhoods were platted, restrictive covenants were set in place preventing residents from parking trailers or building unattractive outbuildings in their front yard. Mixed in with these harmless building restrictions were bold and clearly stated rules that explicitly prohibited Blacks and other non-whites from purchasing or renting homes within the neighborhood. For example, the restrictive covenants for the Comstock Park Second Addition, High Drive First Addition, and the High Drive Second Addition written in 1953 assert that “no race or nationality other than the white race shall use or occupy any building on any lot, except that this covenant shall not prevent occupancy by domestic servants of a different race or nationality employed by an owner or tenant.”

Scan of Restrictive Covenant filed with the Spokane County Auditor for the Comstock Park Second Addition. Credit: Eastern Region Branch, Washington State Archives.

Those exact covenants were authorized by Spokane’s very own William Hutchinson Cowles Jr., publisher of the Spokesman-Review and Spokane Daily Chronicle for 25 yearsand owner of significant property across the city. Cowles was not alone, many real estate developers included these racially motivated restrictive covenants in order to ensure that many cities, including Spokane, would remain segregated. Upper-middle class white folks were attracted to these neighborhoods because they would not have to live near Blacks, Asians, Indians or any other people of color whose presence in a neighborhood would “lower property values.”

These particular covenants were written in 1953, five years after the Supreme Court deemed it unconstitutional for states to enforce these restrictive covenants, in Shelley v Kraemer. The Court determined that the covenants themselves were not unconstitutional, however for a state to enforce the terms of the covenant would be a violation of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. Even though these restrictive covenants could not be enforced after 1948, Spokane real estate developers like Cowles continued to include them in the restrictive covenants they drafted.

Portrait of William H. Cowles Jr. in 1962. Cowles was the publisher of the Spokesman-Review and Spokane Daily Chronicle from 1946-1970. He was also a prominent land owner. Photo Credit: Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture/Eastern Washington State Historical Society, Spokane, Washington, L87-1.1327-62, Charles Libby.

A simple Google search for “Spokane restrictive covenants” turns up two interesting results. One is a Google Book result for a recent book by Dwayne A. Mack called Black Spokane: The Civil Rights Struggle in the Inland Northwest. He discusses restrictive covenants in Spokane among other Civil Rights Issues. I am planning to pick it up at the library. The second is a Spokesman-Review article by Jim Kershner from May of 1997. It is an overview of the history of segregation in Spokane. Near the end of the article there is an interview with Carl Maxey, a Black Spokane Civil Rights Attorney, who discusses the impact of the decision in Shelley v. Kraemer. In talking about segregationists, he said that the Court’s decision gave Blacks a “foothold to blast their legal foundations out from under them.”

Even though these covenants cannot be enforced many of them are still on the books in Spokane neighborhoods. With some help from a local archivist and good friend, Allie Honican, I tracked down three Spokane additions that still have restrictive covenants barring non-whites from owning or renting homes in their neighborhoods. They are Comstock Park Second Addition, High Drive First Addition, and High Drive Second Addition all of which fall within the Comstock Neighborhood. I am going to email a link to this blog post to the neighborhood council chairperson for the Comstock Neighborhood Council to make them aware of the issue. Also, if you live in one of these neighborhoods please reach out to the neighborhood council and other residents to make them aware of this glaring remnant of the racist covenants that perpetuated segregation in our communities.

Occasionally I will post briefly about an interesting document, publication, or historical record that is available digitally. Let us start with this fascinating state commission on the status of race and violence in Washington State in the late 1960s.

Race and Violence in Washington State: A Commissioned Report

On Friday the archivist at my work, Anna Harbine, strolled out of the depths of the stacks with a thin little book in her hand and a proud grin on her face. She plopped the book down on my desk and I was instantly fascinated. The book, Race and Violence in Washington State, was a commissioned report by the state of Washington in 1968. Just quickly paging through the book it was surprising how similar many of the problems, findings, and recommendations cited in the report were to some of the situations we are facing today. The sections on police-community relationships are particularly poignant as the Spokane City Council attempts to steer the future of the Spokane Police Department.

The publication also includes some interesting maps that show where the Black community was concentrated in Spokane, Tacoma, Seattle, and Washington State in 1960s. Look at this one from Spokane:

The book is widely available in public libraries and I found it available digitally from an interesting repository called the Digital Mayoral Archives. The repository “seeks to capture the breadth of stories and perspectives that have shaped municipal leadership throughout” the history of the city of Indianapolis. Somehow this Washington gem found its way into their collection. Thank you for that, we appreciate it.

Look for a more in depth blog post on this publication from Anna Harbine in the near future.

Welcome to the first post on my new blog The Local History. The following story is an adapted version of an article that will be featured in the next issue of Nostalgia Magazine. I encourage you to explore the links to see the fantastic variety of digital content that is out there for the taking.

Claud Akridge: Merchant Prince of Eureka Flat

Twelve to fifteen thousand years ago flood waters rushed through the valleys and riverbeds of northern Idaho and eastern Washington. The fierce current ripped across the land at speeds exceeding fifty miles an hour peeling soil, boulders, and trees from their resting place. As the waters slowed they deposited rich nutrients along the way. The catastrophic failure of a 2,000 foot ice dam on the Clark Fork River in northwestern Montana caused the floods. The ice dam had blocked the escape of millions of gallons of water that made up Glacial Lake Missoula. The dam thawed and froze dozens of times causing repeated flooding events of devastating proportions.

Although the floods occurred thousands of years ago, they had a lasting impact on the geography we interact with every day. They formed the channeled scablands and famous Washington Palouse. We can thank the floods for that wonderful Washington wine and those delicious sweet onions. The floods are the source of the rich and fertile soil that has sent farmers and other settlers flocking to the region for the last 150 years.

One of those settlers, Claud May Akridge, heard of the wonderful wheat fields of eastern Washington from far across the country in Missouri. Claud was born in 1884 to a farmer named John Akridge and his wife Eliza. Claud grew up working the family farm with his father but he had high hopes for greater opportunities in the future.

Claud Akridge

In the early 1900s Claud had a string of hardships that may have caused him to seek out a new beginning. In June of 1907 two travelers stumbled upon a stranded buggy on the side of the road just outside of Fredonia, Kentucky. Inside they found Claud’s grandfather, Frank Akridge, dead to an apparent gunshot wound. The coroner determined that the fatal wound was caused by the accidental discharge of his .38 caliber pistol when it fell from his scabbard. Just two years later another accidental tragedy struck when Claud’s brother, Albert T. Akridge, plummeted 40 feet to his death while working in a coal mine. According to the local paper, another of Claud’s brothers “went down after him and came near losing his life also.”

Life was tough for working folks in Missouri but Claud was eager to move up the ladder. After he left his father’s house he married a woman named Emma and left farm labor behind. By 1910 Claud was working as a janitor at a local school house in Salt River, Missouri. This was a step in the right direction for Claud and his growing family but he had big dreams, dreams of the west. So in 1917 Claud set off from northeastern Missouri with his wife and son and settled in Eureka, Washington, a small town east of Pasco.

Eureka Flat is a stretch of land northwest of Wallula Gap that is noticeably different than the rest of the Palouse that surrounds it. Eureka Flat is, as its name suggests, remarkably flat. A reporter for the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin in the 1930’s described Eureka as a place where “magnificent distances penetrate wheat fields, and only wheat fields.” These photos from United States Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information give you a good idea of how flat it is there.

Those rich soil deposits attracted Claud and his family to Eureka. When he arrived in 1917 “the hamlet was paved with gold from $2 wheat” exclaimed a reporter from the U-B. Claud saw an opportunity to provide entertainment and products to his new wealthy neighbors. His entrepreneurial adventures began in 1918 when Claud became the proprietor of a pool hall. Just two years later he owned a cigar store as well. His empire was expanding quickly.

Everything was going well until the onset of the Great Depression. In 1932, wheat prices plummeted to their lowest values since the early 1850s. The once lucrative wheat trade that attracted Claud to the region was now suffering. This interesting 1933 advertisement run by the National Recovery Administration in the Spokesman Review suggests that the situation was not as grim in the “Inland Empire” as elsewhere in the country. The NRA was a New Deal agency created in 1933 to “revive industry and labor through rational planning.” Their primary tactic was to set floor prices by working with industries to sign regulatory codes. This advertisement was targeting those industries that had not yet signed on in Spokane. The program had some early successes but ultimately it failed and the depression dragged on.

The financial hardship forced Claud to consolidate his small empire but he continued to be the central figure in Eureka Flat. In 1938 he applied for a beer license so he could provide local farmers with the bubbly beverage they had been missing since the onset of Prohibition. His request wasdeniedbut Claud was still the “merchant prince of the hamlet.” He answered “to the title of mayor, postmaster, information bureau master, general clearinghouse for community news and a good fellow” explained a Union-Bulletin article from December, 1939. This photograph shows the “Eureka Store” on the right which likely belonged to Claud.

Claud was an astute observer of his community. In 1935 he was an integral lead in the hunt to recapture three hardened convicts that had tunneled forty to fifty feet with spoons and knives to escape from the Walla Walla State Penitentiary. One of the prisoners that Claud helped catch was a Spokane criminal notorious for his ability to escape prison walls. He will be the focus of a future blog post.

Like many Americans, Claud saw a path toward greater opportunity in the Pacific Northwest. He settled on land that had been destined to be prosperous for farmers since the floods and winds prepared the soil for agricultural use some ten thousand years ago. Unforeseen forces of market collapse severely stunted the growth of his empire but regardless of the circumstances, Claud remained determined to move up the social ladder until he died in 1945.